Download Learning Theories

Learning Theories
An overview which
raises more questions than provides
answers
Learning theories must be understood
in context
• Politics
• & Power
Science
Epistemology
Learning
• Schooling
• teaching
Main areas of the understanding of
learning
(Illeris 2009)
Biology
Philosophy
Psychology
Social sciences
Internal
conditions
Learning
Application
External
conditions
3 main concepts of learning
Cognition
Behaviour
Activity
(practice)
Learning Theories
timeline(overlapping)
•
Behaviorists_____________________________
•
Pavlov (1849 - 1936)
–
Watson ( 1878 – 1958)
•
•
Thorndike 1874 – 1949)
Skinner ( 1904 – 1990)
• Bandura ( 1925 -)
(
• Constructivists_____________________________________________________
• Piaget (1896-1980),
Socio-cultural________________________________
•
Dewey (1859 – 1952)
• Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Bruner ( 1915 -)
( Cognitive Load Theory Sweller 1988) !!
CulturalHistoricalActivityTheory_______
Vygotsky (1978 English reintroduction)
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (1978 Berkley)
Michael Cole (? Ph.d: 1962)
Jean Lave (? Ph.d :1968 -)
Yrje Engeström
Another way of mapping theories
• Outside control
Individual initiative
• Behaviorism
• Direct instruction
constructivism
Problem based
learning
Projects
Diversity/Culture
CHAT
• Testing
• Performance/outcome
• based education
Behaviorism definition
• Behaviorism is a theory of learning focusing
on observable behavior and discounting
mental activity. Learning is defined simply as
the acquisition of new behavior.
• Behaviorists call this method of learning
”conditioning”
Behaviorism
• The ideas of behaviorism have their roots in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
• It was promoted by psychologists who wanted to
break free of philosophy and establish
psychology as a real science which involved
detailed objective observation and scientific
measurement
• Any consideration of mental proces which is by
definition unobservable fell outside their interest.
Behaviorism
• Early behaviorists used animals for experiments with
stimulus- response.
• The stimulus-response can also be seen in humans. In
situations where immediate response is required, practice
situations are repeated endlessly until the soldier,
firefighter or airline pilot wil make correct resonses in a
given situation.
• Responsive practice can be explained in terms of
reinforcement of particular neural pathways in the brain.
• Main objection to behaviorism in general education
concerns Who has the right to condition whom for what
purpose !
Pavlov & classical conditioning
•
Pavlov was a Russian physiologist.
•
The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the
salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs.
During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that
dogs salivated when they ate, even saw food. In his initial experiment he sounded
a bell at the time when food was presented to the dogs. The sound of the bell
became for the dogs an indication that food was about to be presented and
eventually the dogs would salivate at the sound of the bell irrespective of the
presence of food. The dogs had been conditioned to respond to the sound of the
bell producing saliva. Their behavior had been successfully modified.
•
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The concept for which Pavlov is famous is the conditioned reflex The phrase
"Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation
rather than using critical thinking.
Skinner & operant conditioning
• The second type of conditioning is operant
conditioning, the most important type of
behaviorist learning. It is more flexible in its
nature and potentially more powerful.
• It involves reinforcing a behavior by rewarding it.
• Skinner is the most famous psychologist in the
field of operant conditioning.
• Skinner maintained that rewards and
punishments control the majority of human
behaviors, and that the principles of operant
conditioning can explain all human learning.
Skinner´s political visions
• Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an
effective and humane science of behavioral control – a
technology of human behavior – could help problems
unsolved
• One of Skinner's stated goals was to prevent humanity from
destroying itself. Skinner supported the use of positive
reinforcement a means of coercion, citing Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's novel Emile: or On Education as an example of
freedom literature that "did not fear the power of positive
reinforcement". Skinner's book, Walden Two, presents a
vision of a decentralized, localized society, which applies a
practical, scientific approach and futuristically advanced
behavioral expertise to peacefully deal with social
problems( Brave New World)
Bandura & Social learning theory
• Bandura is a psychologist. He was professor at Stanford University.
• Bandura was influential in the transition between behaviorism and
social learning theory.
• Social Learning Theory
• The initial phase of Bandura's research analyzed the foundations of
human learning and the propensity of children and adults to
model their own behavior on that observed in others.
• During a period dominated by behaviorism, Bandura believed the
sole behavioral modifiers of reward and punishment in classical
operant conditioning were inadequate as a framework, and that
many human behaviors were learnt from other humans.(cf Lave)
In 1986, Bandura published Social Foundations of Thought and
Action: A Social-Cognitive Theory.
Thorndike
•
American psychologist worked at Teachers College at Columbia University, studying human learning, education,
and mental testing.
•
Thorndike put his testing expertise to work for the United States Army during World War 1.
•
Among Thorndike's most notable contributions involved his research on how cats learned to escape from puzzle
boxes and his related formulation of the law of effect. The law of effect states that responses that are closely
followed by satisfying consequences become associated with the situation, and are more likely to recur when the
situation is subsequently encountered. If the responses are followed by aversive consequences, associations to
the situation become weaker. Thorndike interpreted the findings in terms of associations.
A similar, though radically reworked idea was taken up by B.F. Skinner in his formulation of operant conditioning
The associative analysis went on to figure largely in behavioral work through mid-century, and is now evident in
some modern work in behavior.
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Thorndike specified three conditions that maximizes learning:
•
The law of effect stated that the likely recurrence of a response is generally governed by its consequence or effect
generally in the form of reward or punishment.
The law of recency stated that the most recent response is likely to govern the recurrence.
The law of exercise stated that stimulus-response associations are strengthened through repetition.
•
•
Constructivism comes under the broad
heading of Cognitive Science
• Constructivism is not a brand new idea !
• The foundation for the current interest in constructivism
can be traced to the work of (among others)
• Dewey, J.( 1929): My pedagogical Creed . Washington, DC:
Progressive Education Association.
• Piaget, J.(1952): The origins of Intelligence in Children.New
York: International Universities Press
• Bruner, J.(1966): Toward a Theory of instruction.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Vygotsky, L.S.(1978): Mind in society: The development of
higher mental processes. Cambridge. MA: Harvard
University Press.
Constructivism
• Constructivism is a theory of knowledge (epistemology that
argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from
an interaction between their experiences and their ideas.
During infancy, it is an interaction between their
experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget
called these systems of knowledge schemata.
• Constructivism is not a specific pedagogy, although
• Piaget's theory of constructivist and experiental learning
has had wide ranging impact on learning theories and
teaching methods in education and is an underlying theme
of many education reform movements e.g learner-centred
approach ( often promoted by the World Bank)
The fundamental processes of learning
( in a constructivist learning
perspective)
• Content
acquisition
Individual
Environment
Incentive
The three dimensions of learning
all learning will involve these three dimensions
Content:
Knowledge
Understanding
Skills
Incentive:
Motivation
Emotion
Volition
• MMe
Balance and sensitivity
Meaning and ability
andand
Interaction:
Action
Communication
Cooperation
INTEGRATION
Example from School Life
• During a chemistry lesson a teacher is explaining
a chemical process. The students are supposed to
listen and learn;
• but maybe:
• The interaction does not function because the
teacher´s explanation is not good enough.
• The student´s incentive is inadequate due to lack
of mental and bodily balance( e.g. inadequate
nutrition, emotional disturbance)
• The student´s prior knowledge is inadequate
Piaget Constructivism
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Piaget was born in 1896 in Switzerland.
Piaget developed an interest in biology and the natural world. He was educated at the University of
Neuchâtel, and studied briefly at the University of Zürich. There he published two philosophical
papers.
His interest in pscychoanalysis at the time a burgeoning strain of psychology, can also be dated to
this period.
Piaget moved from Switzerland to Paris, France after his graduation and he taught at the GrangeAux-Belles Street School for Boys. The school was run by Alfred Binet (intelligence test) and Piaget
assisted in the marking of Binet's intelligence tests and he noticed that young children consistently
gave wrong answers to certain questions.
Piaget did not focus so much on the fact of the children's answers being wrong, but that young
children consistently made types of mistakes that older children and adults did not. This led him
to the theory that young children's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of
adults.
Ultimately, he was to propose a global theory of cognitive developmental stages in which
individuals exhibit certain common patterns of cognition in each period of development. Piaget had
three children, whom Piaget studied from infancy.
In 1964, Piaget was invited to serve as chief consultant at two conferences at Cornell University and
University of California The conferences addressed the relationship of cognitive studies and
curriculum development and strived to conceive implications of recent investigations of children's
cognitive development for curricula
Piaget is inspired by and tries to
integrate:
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Dewey´s pragmatism
Freud´s psychoanalysis
Durkheim´s social life
Hall + Binet´s biological conception of the
child
Piaget: Schemas and stages
• The four development stages are described in Piaget's theory as:
• Sensormotor stage from birth to age 2. Children experience the world
through movement and senses (use five senses to explore the world).
During the sensorimotor stage children are extremely egocentric, meaning
they cannot perceive the world from others' viewpoints. , divided into six
substages
• Preoperational stage from ages 2 to 7 (Acquisition of motor skills).
Egocentrism begins strongly and then weakens. Children cannot conserve
or use logical thinking.
• Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 12 (children begin to think
logically but are very concrete in their thinking). Children can now
conserve and think logically but only with practical aids. They are no
longer egocentric.
Formal operational stage from age 12 onwards (development of abstract
reasoning). Children develop abstract thought and can easily conserve and
think logically in their mind.
A constructivist model of learning
• Assumes that the learner him/herself construes his/her
learning structures .
• These structures exist in the brain as dispositions described
by a psychological metaphor as mental schemes.(Piaget)
• The concept of scheme is used to classify what we
subjectively connect and recall in relation to a particular
topic.
• Mental patterns is similarly used as a concept in relation to
incentive and interaction dimensions.
• It is no archive, but traces of circuits between billions of
neurons that have been active earlier. In brain research
called engrams.
Four types of learning
• Cumulative( or mechanical) learning.( isolated formation –
not part of anything else – no personal meaning).When a
scheme is established. Most important in early childhood.
• Assimilative learning.Most common type of learning.
Learning by addition. New element is linked to a scheme
that is already established.
• Accomodative (or transcendent) learning. Breaks down
and transforms (parts of) an existing scheme.(difficult
process)
Expansive (transformative, significant) learning.
personality changes, characterised by a restructuring of a
cluster of schemes and patternes ( crisis like situation)
From individual constructivism to
social constructivism
• Piaget's theory, however vital in understanding child
psychology, did not go without scrutiny. A main figure
whose ideas contradicted Piaget's ideas was the
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky stressed
the importance of a child's cultural background as an
effect to the stages of development. Because different
cultures stress different social interactions, this
challenged Piaget's theory that the hierarchy of
learning development had to develop in succession.
Vygotsky introduced the term Zone of proximal
development as an overall task a child would have to
develop that would be too difficult to develop alone.
Vygotsky
• Vygotsky was a student of literature, philosophy
and estetics(humanities & social sciences) who
plunged into pscychology.
• Born into Jewish family in Russia. Vygotsky was
especially interested in the philosophy of history.
He also looked for an alternative to Cartesian
dualism.
• He got a position at a local teachers college and
becase interested in the physically handicapped
before he moved to Moscow and got a ph.d. at
the Moscow Institute of Psychology.
Vygotsky
• Vygotsky´s thesis was on the psychology of art
The title reveals that to Vygotsky psychology was
a method of uncovering the origins of higher
forms of human consciousness and emotional
life rather than elementary behavioral acts.
• 1924 Vygotsky delivered a vehement attack on
the reflexologists.: Scientific ppsychology cannot
ignore the facts of consciousness thus
challenging Pavlovians
Vygotsky´s programme
• Be developmental. Vygotsky perceived
development as a dynamic process.
• Solve the problem of interrelation between
higher mental functions and lower elementary
functions
• Take socially meaningful activity as an
explanatory principle.
• Language and speech occupy a special
place.(thought and speech have different roots)
• Wanted to find a ”third way” between scientific
and philosophical psychology.
Scientific and spontaneous concepts.
• Scientific concepts originate in the highly structured and
specialized activity of classroom instruction and impose on the
chile logically defined concepts.
• Spontaneous concepts emerge from the child´s own reflections on
everyday experience.
• Scientific concepts are not assimilated but undergo substantial
development depending on the existing level of a child´s ability to
comprehend concepts. This level of comprehension is connected
with the development of spontaneous concepts.
•
Spontaneous concepts in working their way upwards toward
greater abstractness clear a path for scientific concepts on the
downward development toward greater concreteness.
Major points in learning from
Social constructivism & Vygotsky
• Emphasis is on interaction between the learner
and others.
• Language has a high priority
• Dialogue with peers or more knowledgeable
others
• The Zone of proximal development
• Recent educational tool: Collaborative learning
Social and Individual Constructivism
Vygotsky vs Piaget (Pritchard 2009)
• Both were constructivists. Both Piaget and
Vygotsky believed that individuals actively
construct their own knowledge and
underrstanding.
• Vygotsky stressed the importance of the social
interaction in which an individual participates.
Piaget stressed the inner motivation to
balance new information with existing
knowledge and understanding.
Social and Individual Constructivism
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Vygotsky
Social constructivism
Children learn through
being active
Learning is a socially
mediated activity
Emphasis on the role of the
teacher or more
knowledgeable other as a
scaffolder
Piaget
• Cognitive constructivism
• Children learn through being
active
• Children operate as ”lone
scientists”
• If a child is shown how to do
something rather than being
encouraged to discover for
himself, understanding might
be inhibited
Social and Individual Constructivism
Vygotsky
• The teacher is a mentor
who provides the
challenges that the child
needs for achieving more
• Development is fostered by
collaboration ( in the zone
of proximal development
and not strictly age related.
Piaget
• The teacher is the provider
of artefacts needed for the
child to work with and learn
from
• Cognitive growth has a
biological, age related
developmental basis
Social and Individual Constructivism
Vygotsky
• Development is an
internalisation of social
experience. Children can be
taught concepts that are
just beyond their level of
development with
appropriate support.
• What the child can do with
an adult today, they can do
alone tomorrow.
Piaget
• Children are unable to
extend their cognitive
capabilities beyond their
stage of development.
• There is no point in teaching
a concept beyond current
stages of development.
Constructivism – epistemology or
learning theory ?
• Research support for constructivist teaching
techniques has been mixed, with some
research supporting these techniques and
other research contradicting those results.
• ( Tobias, S., Duffy, T.M.(eds)(2009): Constructivist
Instruction. Success or Failure? New York:
Routledge)
Epistemology and Teaching
• So even though constructivism is accepted at
the epistemological level it is hotly debated to
what extent learning and teaching can be
based on that notion.
Constructivism vs.Direct instruction
• Students who had practice with feedback had better performance and
more positive attitudes than those students who did not have
opportunities for practice.
• Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark suggest that novices be taught with direct
methods of instruction like worked examples. Sweller (2006) discusses
the worked-example effect as a alternative to problem-solving for
novices. However practice with feedback is condoned and even
encouraged by Sweller and his associated because these types of learning
are important for those who already acquired a schema (Kalyuga, Ayres,
Chandler, & Sweller, 2003) therefore there is no conflict between
Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark's views, and those of Klein and Sullivan. Each
agrees that the learner be given practice with feedback. Kirschner et al.
(2006) propose instruction should, however, begin with worked examples.
• Studying examples as an alternative to active learning strategies
Science and Politics -Evidence
• In the past few years outcome-based
education/performance-based education
policy has begun to limit instructors to only
using those techniques that have been shown
to be effective. In the United States for
instance, the No Child Left Behind requires
those developing instruction to show evidence
of its "effectiveness."